Among the conventionally-known vehicle slide door structures are ones where a guide rail extending in a front-rear direction of the vehicle is provided on a slide door and connected to the vehicle body via a parallel link mechanism. As disclosed, for example, in JP 09-277833 A, the parallel link mechanism includes two parallel links that are pivotably connected at their respective proximal end portions to the vehicle body and pivotably and slidably connected at their distal end portions to the guide rail.
With the slide door structure disclosed in JP 09-277833 A, a slide door opening section can be opened by the two parallel links being pivoted about the proximal end portions to move the slide door away from the vehicle body and then the slide door being slid toward the rear of the vehicle along the distal end portions of the two parallel links. However, to open the slide door, there is a need to move the slide door a predetermined distance away from the vehicle body, and the two parallel links have to have great lengths. Therefore, an operating range of the two parallel links necessary for opening the slide door would become considerably great, which undesirably makes it difficult to secure a sufficient space through which a passenger can get in/off the vehicle (such a space will hereinafter be referred to as “getting in/off opening” or “getting in/off space”).